Monday, February 24th 

Survey Says 

We completed the following survey: "Which of the five senses do you use most often to learn?"

Here are the results:

7 students recorded that they used their sense of sight most often to learn.

8 students recorded that they used their sense of hearing most often to learn.

2 students recorded that they used their sense of touch most often to learn. 

We shall see if these results change after we have completed our Inquiry into the Five Senses. 

What happens when one of your senses is impaired/How does it affect your learning??

Today we explored what it would be like to be blind! First we listened to a story while wearing blindfolds. 

After the story students made the following comments:

Jerzee - "I had to use my imagination." (to understand the story)

Laura - "I made pictures in my head to see the story."

Jack - "I listened very carefully to the words."

We partnered students and took a "trust" walk. One student was blindfolded, the other student had to lead. We took turns. 

What we discovered:

We use our sense of touch much more when we cannot see. We touch everything to find out what it is.

We need to use our touch and hearing for safety when we cannot see.

When you are blind you need to trust others to help you.

Students also discovered that they had difficulty keeping their sense of direction to know where they are going.

Five Senses Inquiry

We our "delving deep" into our Inquiry question, "How do our senses help us learn?" The first part of our journey requires "frontloading"; accessing prior knowledge and developing new understandings about our five senses.  We began with an exploration activity. I gave students a set of objects to explore and find connections. We came to the conclusion that the objects could be categorized by their connection to the five senses. During our discussion students made many interesting observations, posed questions and made comments on their own learning:

Leah - "We looked at that stuff to figure out what we would be learning about".
Laura - "The senses are all connected to our brain".
Jack - "When me and Max were working together to find five senses we were talking, working hard and staying on task".
"We have learned what sense goes with what body part". 
Austin "When you were a baby and you tasted something you remember not to eat it". 
Caroline "Now I know not to eat playdough because when I was a baby I tasted it and it was yucky and now my brain tells me it tastes bad".
Amani - "When you taste something it goes to your brain". 
Leah - "Everything you do with your five senses goes to your brain and you remember". 
Ben - "For safety" (Why do we have five senses?)

After completing the exploration activity we used "Five Senses" books to create a list of vocabulary. We sorted the words into categories and will be making a "dictionary" of senses words. Mrs. Hnatiuk will be in to discuss poster criteria and we will create a poster in small groups for each of the senses. 
Our next step is to continue generating questions for students to explore. Students will also discuss and decide which sense they use most when they are learning by completing a survey. This should be a very interesting discussion. I know students will discover much about themselves!